Have you ever seen a person and just from their appearance you felt that you knew all that you needed to know about them? Well, I did this, and I stand corrected. My experience started when I heard a pastor speak, I listened intently while he was speaking but at the end of the message my thought was that the delivery of his message was just okay. The message that I heard did not really move me or left me with the feeling that I wanted to hear more from him. So, I never made any effort to catch him whenever he came on the television, you know when you really like a show will you check the TV guide to make sure that you can catch your favorite tv shows. In my opinion he was alright, but not a pastor that I had any plans to watch again.
One day as I was getting ready to wind down for the day, I turned on the television and this pastor whose name I will not share was on my TV! The pastor was having a sit down with the host of the network. My first instinct was to immediately turn the channel. With the remote in my hand, I was ready to turn the channel, but for some unknown reason I paused when the pastor began to speak, then the host said in his opening statement that they were trying to connect with this pastor for a very long time, that comment caught my attention and caused me to wonder who this pastor was. The pastor smiled and started to speak, he began with an introduction and then started to give a brief BIO about his life. I had every intention of not listening to him because I did not want to hear anything that he had to say, but after hearing his story and getting a glimpse of who he was I was more open to listen to him and trust what he was talking about. I did not change the channel, I stood in the middle of the floor and listened to every word that he spoke, needless to say I was impressed by his life story. I had a change of mind concerning him and his ability to effectively deliver God’s word.
For confirmation, the next Pastor that came on started his segment with the scripture John 4:5 and said in his opening statement, that we do not get to choose who God will use to get this message out. So yes, I rolled my eyes and mumbled to myself okay I get it. The message to me was that we need to stop being so dismissive of each other without first taking time to get to know a person or their story. It is not fair to think that we can sum up a person’s importance based on what we see or think that we know about a person. I now have a different opinion of the pastor and this experience will be a reminder for me to resist the temptation the next time I feel the urge to turn away from someone without first taking the time to know who they are. I Will, Will You?
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